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Conjugations of Dream features new artworks by Victor Yañez-Lazcano that compassionately and critically contemplate notions of the American Dream. Combining his research in language, labor, and identity this exhibition aims to shape a broader narrative of US-Latinx and Latinx immigrant identity. Through a pair of large-format color photographs, a feature-length video, a set of drawings on glass, and a sculptural installation, Yañez-Lazcano tacitly articulates his interests in visibility with regard to the American immigrant experience and dreaming. These four artworks are the first in a series of a growing body of work that asks of the American Dream: Who gets to dream? Who defines this dream? What are the rules of engagement, and at what cost to dreaming itself?

Since 2009, Victor Yañez-Lazcano has shaped an interdisciplinary body of work that chronicles his family’s history in the US as it transitions from immigrants to first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican Americans. His artworks explore his family’s collective identity at the intersection of race, language, class, and labor to further grapple with notions of assimilation. His research begins with collecting familial oral histories and documenting tacit assimilation patterns he believes unique to being raised in rural Wisconsin.

Victor Yañez-Lazcano received his MFA from Stanford University and his BFA from Columbia College Chicago. In 2012, Yañez-Lazcano co-founded LATITUDE, a non-profit community digital lab for photographers in Chicago. Since 2018, he has been a visiting lecturer in art at various institutions including Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited at numerous spaces including Royal Nonesuch Gallery (Oakland, CA), Natalie & James Thompson Art Gallery (San José, CA), Perspective Gallery (Milwaukee, WI), and The Chicago Design Museum. In 2016, CANDOR ARTS (now CANDOR Collective) published Yañez-Lazcano’s series ‘de’ which has gone onto be included in various collections including Yale University’s Haas Arts Special Collections, Indiana University’s Wells Library Fine Arts Collection, and Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library Special Collection.